Bel canto, Ice that Burns

Power, oppression, betrayal, exile, impossible love, religious conflict, and a clash of civilizations. Here is one of the frequent episodes in the history of opera where an actual event at the time of its premiere is told to us metaphorically, veiled in a historic transposition. In the Jerusalem and Babylonia of the 6th century B.C., the public of 1842 established an association between the ordeal of the Jewish people and the spirit of the Risorgimento (Italian nationalism). This was a way to shout out against the foreign oppression from which they were suffering at that moment.

The opera was Nabucco, an accidental commission which was received grudgingly but became a turning point for the future of Verdi. It reactivated his interest to compose -Verdi’s wife and two children had died in a two-year period – and initiated his “galley years”, that period of one success after another and a compulsive period of work which resulted in 17 operas in 12 years. Verdi’s assent began with Nabucco, a dramma lirico in four parts which erupted in the overture with a force of power unknown until then, and which extended through to the end of the work with stunning melodic progression, a breathtaking dramatic crescendo, a psychological study of its characters that was ahead of its time and a chorus that was carefully sculpted as one more element of the action. A high impact opera brimming with unforgettable moments.

There will be six performances with a double cast of markedly Hispanic names, led by baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez and soprano María José Siri, along with bass- baritone Simón Orfila, in a new in-house production of the Maestranza, shared with other international theatres. The stage direction is by Christiane Jatahy and Francesco Ivan Ciampa conducts the Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro de la Maestranza.

Libretto by Temistocle Solera. Premiere at the Teatro alla Scala of Milan on March 9, 1842.